Eagles overtake Blue Pony boys in the Corral

When the Havre High boys basketball team and Fairfield met inside the HHS gymnasium Tuesday night, it was a tale of two halves — one controlled by the Blue Ponies and another that saw the Eagles take flight.

After Havre held the high-powered Eagles to just 21 points in the first half and took a 28-21 lead into the intermission, Fairfield caught fire, scoring 22 points in the third quarter and 25 more in the fourth quarter to leave the Pony Corral with a 68-53 victory. The loss dropped the Ponies to 6-8 overall on the year. Havre will be back in action Thursday with another non-conference game against Rocky Boy.

“First half, we were focused in on the defensive end,” coach Walynn Burgess said. “To hold a team like that to 21 points in the first half. That’s doing some good things. That is a very good offense as you could see.”

Facing a tough opponent in the 10-3 Eagles, Havre raced out of the gates and grabbed an 8-2 lead when Jake Huston converted a breakaway layup. Fairfield answered with a three, but Havre responded with a 7-0 run to close the first quarter that was capped with an Austin Delarosa jumper that put Havre in front 15-5 after one.

Thanks to a Mason Rismon jumper in the second quarter, the Ponies built a 17-7 lead, only to see the Eagles fight back with an 11-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 18-17. Yet, HHS had the answer again and, this time, it came from Tyrel Kjersem, who buried a triple to put the Ponies back in front 20-18. Then, with 60 seconds left in the first half, Kjersem hit again from deep and then blocked a shot at the other end with seconds to go, sending Havre into halftime leading 28-21.

“The boys were getting after it,” Burgess said. “Those kids understand and they know if they get in the game, they have to bring the energy and they answered the bell. It was good for them.”

In the third quarter, the good vibes continued for Havre as Delarosa drilled a triple that put Havre in front 33-24, giving it its largest lead of the game with 4:50 left in the stanza. Unfortunately for the Ponies, at that point, Fairfield flipped the switch.

Using some pressure defense and some timely shooting from guys like Keeley Bake, Connor Murry and Ryder Meyer, the Eagles closed the third on a 19-3 run and took a 43-36 lead into the fourth quarter.

Right away in the fourth, Rismon got Havre back within six after connecting from beyond the arc. But, Fairfield scored the next 11 points, which capped an overall run of 32-6. Delarosa hit another three as the Ponies tried to rally, but, in the end, Havre ran out of gas and fell by 15.

“We had seven turnovers at halftime,” Burgess said. “And then we came out with 17 and a bunch of those were steals and if you are giving up steals, then you are going to give up some easy buckets.”

Havre put together a balanced scoring effort in the loss as Delarosa and Rismon both scored a team-high nine points. Tommy Brown and Huston each added seven along with Clint Owens. Kjersem and Tysen Sangrey each finished with six. Fairfield got a stellar effort from Bake, who led all scorers with 19. Murry contributed with 17 and Dawson Allen added 13 in the win for the Eagles, who are now 11-3 on the season.

Havre will play at Rocky Boy Thursday night. Tip-off time is set for 7:30 p.m.

Fairfield 68, Havre 53

Fairfield 5 16 22 25 - 68

Havre - 15 13 8 17 - 53

Fairfield - C. Murry 17, K. Bake 19, R. Meyer 9, D. Allen 16, D. Simmons 3, T. Gulick 4.

Havre - Josh Warp 2, Jake Huston 7, Tommy Brown 7, Austin Delarosa 9, Mason Rismon 9, Clint Owens 7, Tyrel Kjersem 6, Tysen Sangrey 6.